Healthcare professionals who practice mindfulness understand how to be fully present for themselves and their patients. This helps them manage their own stress levels while improving their ability to provide care for their clients. Starting a mindfulness practice can be done in as few as five minutes per day. If you want to experience the powerful benefits of mindfulness, here is what you should know about building your own practice.
Why is Mindfulness Important?
When a healthcare professional practices mindfulness, they are able to cultivate stronger relationships, build compassion, and reduce their experience of negative emotions. This can help them nurture positive, healthy habits. According to a literature review published in the American Journal of Medicine, mindfulness practices led to a statistically significant improvement in stress scores for providers. (see also: PCC IHP Mindfulness Courses).
Not only does this greatly improve your quality of life, but it also helps your patients. When the medical professional manages their stress effectively, they become better equipped to help patients manage negative emotions, including anxiety and stress.
How to Start a Mindfulness Practice
1. Gain a deeper understanding of mindfulness
To build a mindfulness practice, you must first gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be mindful. As you gain more insight, you will discover the foundations of these practices and how they can be used in a clinical setting.
At PCC, we offer two mindfulness courses to help professionals practice or expand their mindfulness skillset. With Awareness-Based Mindfulness: The Practice of Presence, you will explore the clinical applications for anxiety and depression. More specifically, you’ll learn how mindfulness can help your clients regulate emotions, manage stress and shift their anxiety and depression in positive directions.
In the course Foundations in Mindfulness: Empowering You & Your Clients, you will learn more about neuroscience and the power of meditation and how you can incorporate these practices into your work.
2. Make it a priority
To have a successful mindfulness practice, you need to commit to incorporating it into your daily life. Start small with just five minutes a day. As you become accustomed to using the strategies daily, you can continue building up your practice. This allows you to being your practice without becoming overwhelmed.
3. Create a dedicated space
Creating an inviting, comfortable space for meditation will help you free yourself from potential distractions. It will also be easier to clear your mind in a quiet, dedicated area.
4. Incorporate your practice into another daily habit
You likely have a few daily habits, such as journaling or drinking a morning cup of joe. Add mindfulness to one these habits to incorporate it seamlessly into your day. This will help you maintain the practice and make it a prominent part of your daily life.
5. Get support
Joining a supportive community of other healthcare professionals who use mindfulness in their daily lives and work can help you remember the importance of the practice. Find a community that’s open to sharing ideas and encouraging each other.
6. Let go of expectations
Do not confine yourself to what you think a meditation practice should be like. The practice you develop will be the one that is right for you. If you constrict yourself too much, it will be easy to give up if your practice does not fit that narrow mold.
Discovering the art of mindfulness can help healthcare professionals with their mental health and their ability to treat and support patients. Find out more about our mindfulness courses at PCC to see how you can incorporate these practices into your personal and professional life.